<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>you've never known a love like ours by ctwrites</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28102560">you've never known a love like ours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ctwrites/pseuds/ctwrites'>ctwrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Friends (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Oneshot, Romance, foreboding sense of impending disaster, god i just love these characters, how do tags work, someone tell me how to do tags thanks, when you know it's wrong but it feels so right, you know the one we all feel at some point during a doomed romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 12:01:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>552</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28102560</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ctwrites/pseuds/ctwrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's round two, and Monica knows how this one will end.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Richard Burke/Monica Geller</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>you've never known a love like ours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>if for some reason you breezed past the description, this is monica/richard. please don't read if you don't like this pairing. thanks!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Monica knows how this will end.</p>
<p>Endless days in bed with the hours bleeding together, barely eating, never sleeping, yet somehow not awake. Hot showers that burn her skin pink before she realizes. Quiet footsteps outside her bedroom, loud laughter across the hall. Only wearing her father's old flannel shirt because it's easier to feel okay when she feels like a child again, back when Dr. Burke was her dad's golf friend she only saw at cookouts and pool parties.</p>
<p>Now he's Richard. She's left him once, but somehow she's found her way back again.</p>
<p>They tumble on the bed in a mess of limbs. Monica cushions the fall with her hand and recoils instantly when a thorn from one of the many roses pierces the soft flesh of her palm. The tiny gash disappears under a pair of hot lips, softer than ever, no bristly mustache to prick her skin.</p>
<p>"Careful," murmurs Richard against her wrist. Monica can feel the buzz of the words go up her arm and right down her spine.</p>
<p>Monica has always been the careful one. She cleans everything so thoroughly, all of her bills are paid the minute they arrive in the mail, and she's got insurance for everything (a feat she is incredibly proud of, seeing as most people her age were still on their parents' health insurance). But with Richard she was something different. Something vibrant. Sneaking (or breaking, however you wanted to view it) into a man's house in a silk negligee to surprise him with, if she dare say, incredible sex was very un-Monica. Or maybe it was Monica, and it was just Richard that drew out the pure essence of her person.</p>
<p>Richard smells of sweet tobacco and whiskey. Monica breathes the whole of it in. She pretends like it's last year. No break up, no months of blank days and worried looks from friends. A sprawling, endless future where every day ends with Richard in bed next to her.</p>
<p>She knows how this has ended before. Her heart cracks as Richard comes undone beneath her, body trembling as he holds her against him like a lifeline with hands that grip familiarly in the dip of her waist. Basking in the afterglow, it's the sweetest, most exquisite pain she's ever felt. Monica rolls off of him and nestles into the space under his arm that's shaped like it's made just for her. They stay there like that until the sun paints the room orange then dips under the horizon.</p>
<p>Monica lays in the bubble of Richard's embrace, suppressing the panic that she feels churning just beneath the tranquil atmosphere of the room. She has to give him up. Monica is strong, but she couldn't survive Richard twice.</p>
<p>So she sits up and pushes Richard down when he tries to follow suit.</p>
<p>"Wha- oh," Richard says, cutting himself off with a laugh as he realizes which direction Monica's kisses are leading. She pushes the blankets back and revels in the ego boost that is Richard standing fully erect from a thirty second trail of kisses she left down his stomach. Monica takes him into her mouth and blushes in pride at the shaky exhale that escapes Richard.</p>
<p>She knows how this will end. She has to give him up.</p>
<p>But not tonight.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i am well aware that many people find this couple distasteful for their vast age difference, and that's valid. i love the lessons learned by both characters throughout the duration of their relationship, and i'm a big fan of the accurate portrayal of how lingering feelings for someone you loved deeply affects you afterwards, even if you know it wasn't the right fit.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>